Material for scouring devices



1934- E. s. BRADFORD, JR 1,941,928

MATERIAL FOR SCOURING DEVICES Filed Nov. 20, 1951 IN V EN TOR. a DW/IRD bfBmFoRaJ/er F! g. .5. x M

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Patented Jan. 2, 1934 MATERIAL FOR SCOURING DEVICES Edward S. Bradford, Jr., Long .Meadow, Mass., assign'or to Springfield Wire -& Tinsel 00., West Springfield, Mass, a corporation oi. Massachusetts Application November 20, 1931 Serial No. 516,291

7 Claims. (Cl. 117-52) This invention relates to an improved strand of material for use in scouring utensils, particularly the kind made of metallic filaments and used in the kitchen for cleaning pans, etc. The

same type of material in tangled or interlocked strand formation is used for filtering purposes and sometimes for tinsel decorating purposes.

One of the common ways of making the strand material for these utensils, is to coil 2. flattened metal (copper) filament around a cotton carrier thread, Such material is well known and a particular utensil made of it is shown in my issued U. S. Patent No. 1,864,579, dated June 28, 1932.

I have shown an improvement by which the metal edges are increased in a strand for this purpose,

in my issued U. S.'Patent No. 1,853,543, dated Apr. 12, 1932. In that improvement the carrier is made of one or more flattened metallic filaments instead of textile material.

According to one ieature of the present invention I provide a metallic filament carrier that is coiled so as to have a large degree of elasticity somewhat like a coiled spring and around such a carrier, the usual flattened filament is coiled to make a combination-which is particularly useful in forming scouring utensils as will bepointed out. Other features of the invention will be brought out in connection with the detailed description and drawing. to In the 'drawing 1 Fig; l is a view or a carrier filament as it appearsboth before it is coiled and after it is coiled when held under tension;

Fig. 2 is a view ofthe same carrier filament after it is coiled and after it is released from tension, but the scaleis enlarged to show the general effect of the coiling, and this figure is somewhat conventionalized as the thickness of the wire is not shown;

Flg. 3 shows the condition of the coiled carrier under tension and while. the loose covering filament is being wound thereon; Fig. 3a is a conventionalized showing of the completed strand; in enlarged scale, after the core of Fig. 3 has been released from tension and has recoiled to its normal coiled form with the coils of the other wire on the outside of the core coils; and I Fig. 4 shows one form of utensil made from the 60 strand of the invention.

To practice the invention in one way a flattened or round metal filament 1 is coiled. This may be done by drawing and at the same time bending the filament over a metal blade or edge.

t This may be done by hand, for purposes of illustration, by holding the filament under tension and pulling it over a dull knife blade and changing the direction of the filament (90 degrees, for example) as it rubs over-the blade so as to bend it progressively. This kind of coiling will stretch 80 or tension the material on the upper side 01 the filament and compress it on the under side. While the action is going on the coiling efiect is I not apparent to the eye, but as soon as the filament is released the effect of the coiling action 85 is immediately and strikingly apparent. A comparison of Figs. 1 and 2 will show the effect of crimping such as is desired. When the tension after coiling is released the filament 1, whlch before was straight and regular, suddenly takes the form of a coiled spring. The filament is such a weak strand that its coiled spring form is not uniformly regular but its coils are of small enough pitch and diameter to make a longitudinallyelastic carrier strand of metal. I

a After the carrier strand is coiled but before its tension is released I coil the cover strand 2 loosely around the carrier. This may be done :lust as heretofore and as described in my copending' cases, except that in this'instance the carrie'riBO- strand has been coiled. A. strand oi.- this composite kind of material for scouringpurposes is used to make up a convenient form of scouring utensil. The fact that the new composite strand is all metal and has a carrier of decidedly elastic properties has an advantage in iorming :various' kinds of scouring utensils and advantages in the use of such utensils. I 3 For example, I have found that in making up a scouring utensil as shown in my said copending case Serial No. 474,551, the elastic properties of the carrier filament are very useful. The Y particular utensil mentioned is made-by looping the composite strand under tension (preferably after the carrier filament iscoiled and the covering filament wound on it and before the tension from, these operations is released), into skein form of a desired weight, binding or anchoring the skein loops at two opposite points while held there under tension, and then releasing the tension. The elasticity of the coiled metallic carrier filament will immediately efiect a bunching of the skein material into ball form 3, such as shown in Fig. 4. It will be understood from the nature of the material that this ball form is very resilient indeed. It can be compressed and released, pulled out of shape inall sorts of ways, and is characterized by its fluffy all-metallic and elastic nature. The article of this invention gives an elasticity in the utensil which dominates the form much better than those of the prior art.

When the composite strand was made with a textile fiber carrier as a yarn or thread, the elasbicity of such a thread helped retain the form of the utensil. But it was frequently found desiracient diameter to permit easy stretching with the outer strand and the latter strand having coils of suflicient diameter to ride upon the inner strand and be carried thereby, the coil diameters of said strands being different so as to cause the outer strand tofollow the coil of the inner strand whenble to make the metallic covering of a particular sever the latter is stretched and then permitted metal or alloy having enough spring to give the elasticity required for the utensil to retain or re turn to form. In such cases the elasticity of the fibrous carrier was not sufficient to get the nice form desired. The filament coils which cover the carrier strand, when of spring metal, could then be made to give a desired elastic form but such coils are the ones primarily needed for cleaning purposes. To make them of a different metal than desired for their main purpose I have found objectionable. It was still more objectionable in meeting the requirements of a straight metal carrier, which had little or no elasticity. The new provision of a coiled metallic filament, according to the present invention, which gives all the elasticity desired, makes it feasible to choose the kind'of metal best. suited for the covering coils. In addition, the increased elasticity over the old fibrous thread carrier is of large advantage in holding the form of utensil. The coiled metallic carrier filament also has the advantage, on account of its coils, of greatly increasing the number of scouring edges in the utensil.

One good way to make up the composite strand of the invention is to use a copper-steel filament for the carrier having enough spring, when coiled as described, to give all the elasticity desired and to use a practically pure copper filament for the coils covering the carrier. Both filaments will look generally the same (except for the size of the coils) but the outer one will be softer and more pliable. Of course, the invention is not limited to the kinds of metal used, but it is desirable in some instances to have the outer or covering coils of softer metal than they would need to be if the elasticity of the scouring utensil must depend to any substantial degree on the nature of the scouring metal filament covering the carrier filament.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. The combination in a scouring strand, a spring formed of metal filament coiled into form to serve as a thread-like core and a covering material of metal filament loosely wound about the core, said spring core normally lying in twisted formation and the covering material normally held in the same formation by said spring core, said combination being stretchable to straighten out from and return to said double coiled strand formation.

2. A composite all-metal strand of tinsel material comprising in combination an inner and an outer strand, each strand being in coiled spring formation to provide for combined stretching and recoiling movements of the strand in composite form, said inner strand having coils of a sumto recoil.

3. A composite all-metal strand made of two lengths of tinsel wire, both arranged in helically coiled form, one wound over the other, the inner wire being made of metal having sufficient elasticity and with coils having a sufficient diameter to give a recoiling action to the composite strand whenever it is stretched and released, the outer coiled wire normally riding on the inner wire so as to be kinked and tangled thereon in such stretching and recoiling action.

4. An all-metal composite tinsel strand made of two flattened wires one coiled loosely about and carried by the other, the carrier wire in straightened-out form being substantially the same length as the carried wire in its coiled form, the normal condition of the carrier wire being itself in coiled spring form whereby the longer carried wire is normally tangled in double coiled form therewith, and the composite strand may be easily stretched out as a whole and returned to normal tangled form.

5. An all-metal composite tinsel strand made of two wires, one much shorter than the other, the longer wire being coiled about and carried loosely by the shorter wire so that its coiled form is about the same length as the shorter wire in straight form, said shorter wire being made of elastic metal and itself coiled inside the coils of the longer wire so as to give a large degree of elasticity to the composite strand and arranged to tangle and kink the longer wire carried by it when the composite strand is pulled out and released in use.

6. A new article of manufacture to be used in tangled bunch formation, comprising two flattened tinsel wires tangled together so as to increase the elasticity of the bunch, such tangle being formed by a closely spaced helically coiled and loose lay of one wire on the other and the latter being formed also of closely spaced helical coils of spring metal located inside the first named coils and carrying the latter, said carrier wire being easily stretchable and releasable by hand to a sufficient extent to tangle the wire that is carried and bring the bunch to desired closely tangled form whenever it is stretched and released.

7 A composite strand made of two tinsel wires each of which is wound into coiled spring formation, the coils of one wire having a smaller diameter than the other wire but each being arranged for substantial stretching and recoiling movements, the Wire with coils of smaller diameter being located within the larger coils of the other wire.

EDWARD S. BRADFORD, JR. 

